David Goldberg and Jenn Dorsey (Steve Peterson, Special to The Denver Post)

If you snooze you lose, or so the saying goes. Especially on PJ Day in Denver when the biggest of the big slip into their jammies for a very good cause.

There’s no covering up, either. They wear ’em to lunch at the Capital Grille, to a bed race on the Metro State campus, on a PJ Crawl in three trendy neighborhoods, and to the centerpiece event in this multi-faceted benefit for Denver’s Road Home: the Mayor’s PJ Party at the Residence Inn at 17th and Champa.

It’s a hoot, all right, one that gets better every year.

The 500-plus at the Residence Inn fandango dined on breakfast favorites — things like shrimp and grits from the Corner Office, eggs Benedict from Second Home and pancakes from Snooze — while checking out who was wearing what.

Gov. John Hickenlooper wore the hand-made, red flannel nightshirt that he wore in the event’s first year; Mayor Bill Vidal wore a copy of it that Hickenlooper had presented to him at a ceremonial “passing of the PJs” held earlier in the week.

Former Children’s Museum chief Tom Downey, a candidate for Denver Clerk and Recorder, was in comfy flannel PJs, as were his daughters: Cate, 9; Ella, 6; and Meg, 3. Deidre Hunter was pretty in pink, listening as her husband, Shawn, who’d just been appointed CEO of the Quizno’s Pro Challenge bike race, said race organizers would donate $1 for every start/finish line spectator, up to $250,000, to Denver’s Road Home, a partnership between the City and County of Denver and Mile High United Way that began when Hickenlooper was mayor. Its goal is to end homelessness in Denver within 10 years.

In the six years since its start, PJ Day has raised over $2 million, thanks to the enthusiasm and support of such major players as Sage Hospitality’s Walter Isenberg and developer Evan Makovsky. They were among the first to embrace the idea and they didn’t hesitate to recruit many of their high-powered friends.

John and Carrie Morgridge, for example, couldn’t be there, but sent word they’d be giving $250,000 to the cause.

United Way’s leader, Christine Benero, also wore a replica of Hickenlooper’s night shirt, as did DRH executive director Amber Callender.